Native Garden Design Principles for Success
By Christa Orum-Keller
Published in The Landscape Contractor, May 2024
Throughout history, there have been multiple movements toward naturalistic or wild garden design styles. Forces behind such trends include a reaction to highly manicured garden styles, such as the Wild Garden movement in the late 1800s, spearheaded by William Robinson (1838-1935) and Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932). Historically, naturalistic garden inclinations can be a response to the high labor cost of maintaining controlled cultivated landscapes, or they may be a glorification of nature and the peasant-style garden. Today, more than ever, we are motivated to utilize nature inspired garden design to bring environmental benefits.
Sorting out how best to integrate the Wild Garden in today’s turf dominant and mostly manicured urban landscapes requires sensitivity to traditional design principles. Even for the most enthusiastic pollinator proponent, a well designed and aesthetically pleasing native garden will inspire neighbors to venture out of their comfort zone and attempt to create their own pollinator habitat rather than causing them to worry or complain about the concerning wild garden of their neighbor.
Come challenges when designing with native plants:
- Using too many native plant species
- Overwhelming the design with very tall native species
- Effectively blending native plantings with manicured landscape elements
- Working under the assumption that native plants require no maintenance
When pondering effective native design aesthetics, we can ask ourselves:
“What makes any landscape or any visual image appealing?”
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